The Bladder Festival or Bladder Feast (''Nakaciuq'' "something done with bladders" or ''Nakaciuryaraq'' "the process of doing something with bladders" in Yup'ik), is an important annual

seal hunting Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in ten countries: United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Canada, Namibia, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Ice ...

harvest renewal ceremony and celebration held each year to honor and appease the souls of

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

taken in the hunt during the past season which occurred at the winter solstice by the Yup'ik of western and southwestern Alaska.Lorraine D. Koranda (1968)
Three songs for the Bladder Festival, Hooper Bay

Emily Johnson Emily Johnson (born March 19, 1976 in Soldotna, Alaska) is an American dancer, writer, and choreographer of Yup'ik descent. She grew up in Sterling, Alaska and is based in New York City. She is artistic director of her performance company, Emil ...

(1998)
“Yup'ik Dance: Old and New,”
''The Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement'', Vol. 9, No. 3. In the Yup'ik Eskimo shamanism, while the hunter kills the body of the animal, he does not kill the ''

yua Yua may refer to: * Yua (spirit), a spirit or soul in Yupik mythology * ''Yua'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants in the family Vitaceae * Yua Bateson, a character in the role-playing video game ''Breath of Fire II'' *You're Under Arrest! (mang ...

'' (spirit or soul), which resides in the animal's bladder (''nakacuk'' in Yup'ik) and is reincarnated in a new body. The collected inflated bladders of sea mammals taken by hunters during the previous year are honored. The celebration of the Bladder Festival marked the opening of the winter ceremonial season. At the time of the winter solstice, when the sun "sat down" on the horizon, families inflated the bladders of seals killed that year and brought them into the qasgiq. The timing of the Bladder Festival varied slightly from place to place and from year to year. The Bladder Festival was associated with increased sexual activity. Men and women circumscribed their sexual activity during the Bladder Festival. Pubescent girls could not enter the qasgiq, and women in general were excluded from the qasgiq except during special periods. After several (five or six) days of festivities it was time to return the bladders to the sea. Yup'ik hunters still hunt seals but villages have not performed the festival for at least 50 years or more.

References

{{Reflist Annual events in Alaska Festivals in Alaska Yupik culture

See also

References